An audit released Thursday found that Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department managers improperly used department aircraft, including a helicopter dispatched to give a commander’s daughter a ride to a retirement party. (latimesblogs.latimes.com) المزيد...

"The county audit was prompted earlier this year by a Los Angeles Times report about allegations that officials were abusing aircraft privileges, purposely delaying emergency calls to make the case for more overtime pay, and possibly manipulating time sheets. The Times reporting was based on internal sheriff’s memos and a deputy’s lawsuit that implicated officials."

That sounds like reasonable investigative journalism. Delaying emergency calls sounds a bit more significant than airlifting the commander's daughter.

Exactly, no evidence of delaying any emergency calls was found during this audit. My guess is, since this does look like somewhat of a witchhunt, the audit was thorough. Again, the only discrepency they truly found evidence on was the commander's daughter hitching a ride in rush hour, which is small potatoes considering the scope of the allegations.

All things considered, I think the grade is PASS. Reprimand the one incident and move on. There are other departments they can probably find a good hornet's nest in, but from my point of view, the auditors essentially came up empty-handed.

Not sure what all the fuss is about. The only finding that would have raised my eyebrow was the helicopter ride for the Commander's daughter to get to his retirement gig. That was inappropriate.

The training flight was probably exactly that, a training/proficiency flight. You have some people in AZ who need to get to LA, a plane that is already in use during that time for "training" purposes... Why not send that plane to pick them up AND log the training time as well? I dont find it inappropriate to knock out two birds with one stone. In my book, that's called maximizing equipment utilization. Otherwise, the fuel burn would have only accounted for training...something they were doing anyway. May as well get some use out of it. It didnt sound like the people they picked up were coming to town to catch some massive waves. My bet is they had business to conduct with the LAPD and, as a matter of convenience, a dept plane would be conducting a cross-country training flight....

The other flight to the east coast to look at helicopters... well that business aviation argument vs airlines will go on and on for years to come. May as well toss this event into the pile.

So, an audit of one of the largest law enforcement aviation departments revealed ONE questionable flight??? From where I'm standing, they just passed an audit!

No, "them conservatives" do it all the time too. It's just of matter of realizing from which camp your information is coming. The LA Times story revealed next to nothing, one incident that is flat-out inappropiate use of taxpayer dollars. Nothing else. The others were purely speculative on the part of the paper. The headline insinuates the article will be chock full of misappropriations. It fell well short of that.

I dont align myself with either of them. I stand on my own two feet and make my own grown-up decisions. Whether the story comes from Hannity or Matthews, you gotta consider the source. It just makes sense.

What evidence do you have that the information in this article was fabricated? That's a pretty serious allegation you're making and your dislike of liberals has nothing to do with whether or not there is any truth to it. In fact people generally sound like idiots when they throw around a word like "liberal" as though it somehow makes a point.

Einstein, the LA Times has been an outwardly liberal paper since its inception. Sheriff Baca was elected after running on the Republican ticket. It doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure this stuff out. In fact, people generally sound like idiots when they have to have everything spelled out in front of them.

What is the big deal. Look at all the Government Departments that use their aircraft for whatever reason. Hell, in the end it provides jobs in aviation....Oil Companies and other vendors and so on and so on. Let them use them. BFD!